He helped build the church

In my family and my wife's, church is important and equally important as what goes on inside is what is on the sign outside.

My mother told the story that her grandfather cleared the land for the Church of Christ in Oneco, Florida with the same tractor that had flipped over and killed his son, Augustus Franklin Wilson on January 18, 1923. He supposedly parked the tractor after the death and didn't use it again until the church needed to be built. I'm not sure that is true since the church had been built around 1908.

Some in family don't like hearing their ancestor preached or was influential in a church that has another name on the sign.

My mother would not want to know her ancestor, Joseph Fulford, who she used to obtain membership in the DAR bought the land for the Anglican church to be built in 1762.

Aug. 22, 1762 The Vestry Book of St. John's Parish: "Ordered that Capt. Joseph Fulford pay the inhabitants on the east side of North River on account of building the Chappell on the east side of North River." This church is still in operation today as the Straits United Methodist Church.

My dad's great grandfather was Seth Dykes Smith who was born in 1811 in South Carolina. Seth's father and brother were ministers in the pre civil war Methodist-Episcopal church. Seth was an elder and founder of the Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church in Taylor County Florida. The church was constituted on September 19, 1853.

They had a 150 year anniversary celebration several years ago and the minister invited me to attend. I didn't know a lot about the Primitive Baptist Church at the time but after reading up find they have some pretty sound ideas.

Another in my Dad's family is Shubal Stearns who founded the Sandy Creek Association in June 1758 in Randolph County NC. This was a movement originating from the Separatists Baptist in Connecticut and considered the "Mother of the Southern Baptist Church."

In many parts of the south the Hatfields and McCoy of church feuds is aka the Church of Christ and Baptists.